TEXT IS WRITTEN BY MY DAUGHTER

My father was involved in a car accident whilst on holiday in Florida in 2009. The car he was travelling in was hit by a drunk driver. That moment would change our family’s lives forever. My dad suffered horrific injuries and to save his life, the emergency services had to amputate his left leg above the knee at the scene of the accident. My father suffered several other injuries, including extensive damage to his right leg, broken pelvis, ribs, and arm, and a collapsed lung. What followed was several months in hospital for recovery and rehabi.
The laws in America are different to the UK; insurance does not cover third party injuries but his hospital care was covered by travel insurance so following his return to the UK, there was no further help.

My dad is not the kind of person to let anything beat him, and from the moment he was well enough, he was eager to recover, to learn to walk again, to get back to work and to do everything he could do before.
7 years on and my dad is back at work full time, he is mobile with the use of a wheelchair and a prosthetic leg provided by the NHS. Over this time, my dad had exceeded every expectation and achieved so many of the goals he set himself, to live life as before. But his progress is limited due to the prosthetic leg, he has little or no balance, and walking is very difficult.
There are a number of state of the art prosthetic legs that would suit his needs perfectly and would improve his quality of life beyond recognition, however, these are not available on the NHS.
My dad amazes me every single day, anyone that knows him will say, he’s the most determined person they know, never giving up on anything, and he is ever the optimist. He still maintains that he was ‘lucky’ that horrific day in 2009.
There is a prosthetic leg that would enable my Dad to live his life to the full, but it costs £20,000. So the next phase of his determination to walk unaided starts today.